


So If You Care To Find Me

by kira_katrine



Category: Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 12:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21374515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira_katrine/pseuds/kira_katrine
Summary: They thought they'd never see each other again--but they were wrong.
Relationships: Elphaba Thropp/Galinda Upland
Comments: 3
Kudos: 74
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2019





	So If You Care To Find Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [guileheroine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/guileheroine/gifts).

Elphaba stood in the doorway, watching Glinda among the flowers. Glinda was standing on the rock path, holding a watering can. There were bright green vines, a few seedling trees, flowers of every color. Elphaba and Glinda had planted these, the two of them together.

She saw a soft smile on Glinda’s face as she looked up at a big purple flower taller than she was. Then, Glinda turned, brushing a stray golden curl away from her face, and saw Elphaba. Her smile grew bigger.

“Elphie!” she said excitedly. “Come look at this.”

Elphaba walked over to join Glinda in the garden. “You’ve got a bit of dirt on your face,” Elphaba said, wiping a smudge off Glinda’s cheek with her thumb, then leaning over and kissing the same spot. Glinda blushed slightly.

“I didn’t mean look at _ me _ ,” she said, giggling, “though I’m not exactly complaining. Look at _ that. _”

Elphaba looked up at the flower. It had been a deep purple before, but had changed to a bright red. As she watched, it changed again, lightening into a coral pink.

“Look how pretty it is,” Glinda said, indicating the flower. A couple of days before, it had been sort of flickering back and forth between a bright yellow, a dull maroon, and an unappealing greyish tan. “It's just as fashionable as me!”

* * *

  
  


There were always rumors, and this time had been no different.

Rumors that the Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West had once been friends, had known each other at school. Rumors that perhaps they had been _ more _ than friends. Or maybe they hadn’t _ actually _ been, but the Wicked Witch had _ wanted _ them to be and her jealousy and Glinda’s rejection had ultimately sent her over the edge. Never the other way around. No one ever seemed to think someone as good and pure and wonderful as they thought Glinda was could ever see anything at all in someone like the Wicked Witch, like _ Elphaba, _or could ever find anything in Elphaba’s life to be jealous about.

Even though she did. She had for years. And she had thrown it all away.

There had been other rumors too. Rumors that perhaps the Wicked Witch of the West wasn’t quite gone for good. Rumors that she had not truly melted when the girl threw the water over her, that she had somehow faked her death and fled the land of Oz. Rumors that she had not fled forever, that she would be back to continue her wicked ways. Glinda had done her best to put these down quickly. It certainly wouldn’t do to have her people worrying themselves silly over something so obviously untrue, would it?

But the thing Glinda knew about the rumors, each and every single time they spread through the land of Oz, was always the same. Some of them were completely absurd. Some of them were entirely true. The vast majority were somewhere in-between.

And none of them had anything on the rumors that had gotten started when Glinda had suddenly and unexpectedly resigned her post with only the vaguest of explanations, and when nobody seemed able to confirm having seen her since.

It would not have been easy for Elphaba to leave the land of Oz. The entire place, it was well known, was surrounded by desert so dry anyone who dared try to cross it would surely shrivel to a husk, with sands so hot anyone who set foot there would burn as if walking on coals. True, Elphaba was a witch, and she could fly above the sands if she wanted to--but Glinda doubted she had. She would be too visible in the skies, and the image of her cackling atop a broomstick had been so deeply ingrained in the minds of every citizen of Oz that they would immediately suspect that to be how she had escaped.

But even that wasn’t the only way out. Throughout history, people often had cause to construct tunnels leading either into or out of Oz, under the desert, and others later on had cause to use them. Over time, a whole underground world had formed, one which many citizens didn’t even realize existed, let alone the full extent of it.

And that was where Glinda had decided to go. So far, it didn’t seem like the kind of place she would want to stay, if she could possibly avoid it.

Glinda hadn’t been able to take anywhere close to her entire wardrobe with her on her journey, of course. That would have taken several trunks, and quite a lot of attendants to carry it all, and that was obviously impossible. She needed to keep her whereabouts known to as few people as possible, for her own sake as well as--assuming she was right, that her friend really was out there somewhere and hadn’t actually melted away into a puddle the way she’d been sure she’d seen with her own eyes--_ what if all this was for nothing? I should have done something sooner, I shouldn’t have let things get this bad for her, I should have stayed with her back in the Emerald City, I should have-- _Elphaba’s.

And in this place, it didn’t look like she’d be replacing her clothes any time soon. The underground cities were dimly lit; no sunlight came down there, and the only illumination came from lamps placed every so often along the streets. The people mostly dressed in shades of black, white, brown and grey, with occasional random patches stitched on haphazardly with no apparent regard for color or pattern. The buildings, the roads and everything else man-made were similarly dull in appearance. There wasn’t a sign of any plant life anywhere, except the occasional whitish root poking through a ceiling.

Glinda remembered when she and Elphaba had traveled to the Emerald City, and the look of joy on Elphaba’s face when she saw the glittering green buildings and knew she had finally found a place where she fit in. It was the last time she’d really seen Elphaba happy, she realized--though as long as it had been, Glinda had never forgotten how gorgeous she'd thought Elphaba had looked in that moment.

“Excuse me!" Glinda called out to a passerby. "Have you seen a woman, about this tall—” she indicated a height a bit taller than herself—”and wearing black, with long dark hair—” no, that could describe just about anybody here—”she’s green, you can’t miss her—”

The woman Glinda was talking to frowned. “Green?”

“Yes. Do you have a problem with that?” 

“I do not know what you mean. What is green?”

“Green! You know, the color of that… right half of your collar,” said Glinda. “It really doesn’t go at all with the left half, I think a nice purple might—” The woman looked very confused, plucking at her shirt and frowning down at it as if she had no idea what Glinda was talking about.

_ Oh. _Maybe this was the perfect place for Elphaba to lay low for a little while.

But Glinda wasn't sure it was the place her friend would have ultimately decided to stay.

* * *

The view from Elphaba’s cottage was a lovely one indeed. Lush green grass stretched ahead, dotted with little flowers, yellow and white and red. A little stream flowed by between the hills. Purple clouds drifted across the light pink sky.

No one else lived too near her cottage--that was the way she liked it--but whenever she went into town, she saw all the other houses and shops painted all the colors of the rainbow, as if the people who’d ended up here after emerging from the colorless underground tunnels had been so relieved to see it again that they’d gone a bit overboard. 

There was a knock on the door. Elphaba frowned; she didn’t get a lot of visitors. She peeked through the peephole--

_ No. That couldn’t be. _

“Elphie, I know you’re in there,” said that voice she knew too well to ever mistake. The voice of the only person from Oz who she would ever consider opening her door for.

She opened the window instead. Glinda stood on the porch, her hair tied in a simple ponytail, pulled back from her face which was as beautiful as ever. She was wearing pink, her favorite color, but had replaced her usual frilly dresses with a flowy jumpsuit--though one which was studded with pearls.

“How?” Elphaba said. If Glinda knew she was alive, did that mean others did too? Was a pitchfork-wielding mob going to storm through the tunnels, trample the flowers, overturn the market stalls in town in their search for the Wicked Witch? _ Are more people going to die because of me? _

“Nobody else knows,” Glinda said quickly. “At least they don’t really _ know. _ Some of them think they do, but they think maybe you turned into a snake and slithered away, or perhaps that your ghost haunts the castle or something. Not that you’d be living in a place like this. It’s _ lovely, _by the way, though your house looks a bit--”

“But how did _ you _know I’d be here?” Elphaba said. “You were supposed to think I was dead. That I really had melted--”

“And what did you think that would do to _ me _?”

Elphaba just stared at Glinda. “I--”

“Thinking there was nothing left of you? That you were really gone for good, that I’d never, ever see you again? And having to _ watch it happen? _ Did you think I’d just be _ okay _with that? That I’d just let everybody know the happy news of the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West, and go on my merry way?”

“Glinda, if I hadn’t done it I probably would have _ really _ended up dead--”

“You could have let me help you,” said Glinda. Were those tears she saw in Glinda's eyes? Elphaba felt awful. She hadn't meant for all this to go wrong.

“I couldn't ask you to keep a secret like that from your people," said Elphaba. "And you _ did _help me, in a way. I knew if you told them, they’d all believe you. They all love you--where did you tell them you were going, anyway?”

“I quit.”

“You did _ what? _ ” Elphaba couldn’t have heard her correctly. Glinda had gotten everything she’d dreamed of, all the attention and fame and fabulous outfits her heart desired. Had she really just-- _ left _it all?

“My job really wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, you know,” Glinda said. “It never was. Sure, everyone adored me, but none of them _ knew _ me. Not like you.”

Elphaba knew Glinda had already told her as much--but she hadn’t thought Glinda would actually take it that far, especially not now. But here Glinda was, with only the things she could carry, having traveled for--how long must it have taken her to find Elphaba?

“And I realized I’d been selfish, Elphie," Glinda went on. "I wanted to be the Witch of the North because I wanted all the nice things, all the frills--but really, it was a _ responsibility _ . After--after I thought I saw you die, I promised them all--I promised myself I would do everything I could to really be the Good Witch I claimed to be. But I realized I _ couldn’t _be that, Elphaba. Not if you were out there somewhere, alone.”

“Is that why you came looking for me?” Elphaba said. “Because you wouldn’t be a good person if you didn’t?”

“No,” Glinda said. “At least, that wasn’t the only reason. Or even really the biggest reason.”

“Why, then?”

“Why else? Because I missed you, Elphaba. Because you’re the most important person in all of my life. Because I thought maybe you’d finally found some way to be happy, and I wanted to be happy with you. And because if you weren’t, I wanted to know that too, so I could try to make things better.”

This was more than Elphaba had allowed herself to hope for. Sure, they had talked through a lot of their complicated past just before Elphaba had left, and she knew Glinda really had cared. But she’d never dared to imagine that Glinda cared this much, or that she still would.

“I never meant to hurt you, Glinda,” Elphaba said. “I guess I thought you’d be happier without me. I _ was _wicked, after all. I’d left everything behind. I’m so sorry I let you think I was dead, I did think about telling you when we were talking right before I did it--but I didn’t think I could."

“It’s all right,” Glinda said. “We’ve already forgiven each other for quite a lot, after all. And I’ve found you now. We’re together again.”

“Yes.” She smiled slightly. A cool breeze started to blow through the window, and Elphaba realized she should probably let Glinda in. 

“I don’t know how long you plan to stay here,” Elphaba said. “But I’d like to catch up with you while you’re around.”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Glinda said. “I’m not sure if I am going back.”

“Not going back?” said Elphaba. 

“There’s nothing left in Oz that really matters to me,” Glinda said. “I understand if you don’t want me to stick around here. Maybe I’ll go see the world. There’s so much to do and to see, and—”

“All by yourself?”

Glinda blinked. “Well, I guess. I’m sure I’ll meet tons of new people on my way. I’ll be fine—”

“If that’s what you really want, I wish you luck,” Elphaba said. “But you’re welcome to stay here for as long as you want. And if you don’t want to stay here, I’d gladly go with you, wherever you want to go.”

She turned away from the window, and opened the door, stepping outside and laying her green hand over Glinda’s pale one. “You mean so much to me, too,” Elphaba said. “I missed you so much, and I don’t want to lose you again. I want you to be part of my life, and I want to be part of yours—” _ And I want it to be as more than a friend, _ she thought as she looked into Glinda’s beautiful ice-blue eyes, her soft pink lips-- _ how she wished she could kiss those lips--how long she had wished it for. _

And then Glinda stood up on her tiptoes, leaned forward and pressed her lips to Elphaba’s. And Elphaba kissed her back, not really having time to fully process what was happening but knowing that she didn’t want to let go.

“So you want to stay with me--that way?” Elphaba said when they broke apart.

“Of course,” said Glinda. She peered around Elphaba into the house. “Maybe we could brighten this place up a little?”

Elphaba smiled. “I’ll consider it,” she said. Though the way she saw it, Glinda’s presence would do that on its own.


End file.
